Northeastern Advances With 88-72 Win over North Carolina A&T; Coen Earns 200th CAA Win

Northeastern Advances With 88-72 Win over North Carolina A&T; Coen Earns 200th CAA Win

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Dylan Smith

CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL | TICKETS
PHOTO GALLERY | HIGHLIGHTS | BRACKET
PRESS CONFERENCE – NORTHEASTERN | PRESS CONFERENCE – N.C. A&T
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 6, 2026) – A pair of 18-point efforts from Xavier Abreu and Mike Loughnane propelled 13th-seeded Northeastern to an 88-72 victory over 12th-seeded North Carolina A&T in the first round of the 2026 Air Force Reserve CAA Men’s Basketball Championship on Friday afternoon at CareFirst Arena.
 
Northeastern (7-23) advances to play No. 5 Drexel in second-round action at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. North Carolina A&T ended its season with an 11-19 mark.
 
Huskies’ Head Coach Bill Coen notched his 200th win in league action (regular season and postseason), becoming the first CAA men’s basketball coach in league history to reach the 200-win threshold.
 
Loughnane drained four of his six makes from distance and dished out six assists in the victory. Abreu went 5-of-10 from the floor and 6-of-7 from the charity stripe to go with a trio of helpers of his own. William Kermoury and JB Frankel chipped in 14 and 11 points apiece, respectively. The Huskies shot 50.0% from the floor (31-62 FG) with 10 3-pointers.
 
N.C. A&T’s Lewis Walker led the Aggies with 13 of his 17 points coming at the charity stripe. Trent Middleton Jr. and Zamoku Weluche-Ume added 15 points apiece, while Dwayne Pierce rounded out those in double figures with 10 points.
 
Both teams traded blows until the Aggies’ Pierce drove through the lane and finished a layup through traffic to take an 11-8 lead. Northeastern’s Liam Koelsch tied the game at 13 after corralling a dish from Abreu to knot the game at 13 with under 13 minutes to play.
 
The Huskies continued to push forward and saw a Frankel finish at the rim spark a 20-5 run. Loughnane and Kermoury each sank a pair of triples, including the latter draining the final bucket of the frame with 42 seconds remaining, to carry a 40-24 lead into the break.
 
Northeastern watched its lead grow to as many as 17 early in the second half after Frankel drained a turnaround fade from the baseline with 16:10 to play. The Aggies started to chip away at their deficit, utilizing a Middleton Jr. triple and a layup to pull within 11, 51-40, at the 10:45 mark.
 
The Huskies pulled away down the stretch and connected on eight of their final 11 shots from the floor to secure the 16-point victory and advance to the second round.
 
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